04/29/13

Ei Família,

This week was good! It started being winter finally and so we get rain like everyday now, but guess what it is still freaking hot all the time. It was a pretty slow week work wise though. It gets a little harder in the rain, not as many people in the streets and such, and the motivation to go out and get soaking wet isnt all that great sometimes haha. So yesterday Ricardo the guy we baptized and married went to church and got confirmed that was big, he usually is super lazy and doesnt go to church. We talked to him this week and he said he has already noticed changes for the better in his life since after the baptisim. Its so great to know that we are really helping people and families. So i have a funny story from lunch yesterday. The family that gave us lunch is a younger couple like late 20s and they always do like a practice lesson like they are investigators. She was baptized not that long ago like a few years or something so she always ask questions that we have to think about. and they wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon ( our Bible haha) She asked a question about where in the Bible does it say that there was people in the Americas. And i shared the scripture of when Christ says that he has many sheep that are not of his fold in Jerusalém but they will hear his voice. Except in portugues the word for sheep is really close to the word for ear... and i said the word for ear (orelhas) not sheep (Ovelhas) and everyone just laughed for a long time haha. So Christ had a bunch of ears that were not in Jerusalem. I think Kelleys friends question is a valid question. and i think we have all wondered at one point why do men have nipples? I would like to know the answer too so if the Elders know shoot that answer to me hahaha. Im not sure how much weight ive lost, but i weight less than 250 pounds now. Im pretty sure ive lost all my muscle. Updates about my knee, i got an MRI this week and i get the results back tomorrow so i might email you tomorrow with the pictures from the MRI to give to Bro Higgs to look at if he can. But life is good! The Church is Ture and the Book is Blue! Love you all and hope this week goes really well!

Elder Brady Simpson

04/22/13

Hey Hey Hey! 

How´s it going Família? This past week was bonzinho! We started it off great with a birthday party of a investigator Izabela on Monday. It was really cool, we heard some sweet music from Brazil and the cake was super good! It was a good end to a good p day. So then Tuesday we started off the day with a visit to the doctor. His office is like right on the beach so it was way cool ha ha. We walked there and it was only like 25 minutes of solid walking but it was good. At the doctors they took x-rays and said that the x-rays looked fine. It was honestly the most ghetto looking -xray machine I've seen in my entire life. They want me to go get an MRI this week though so I need to schedule and appointment for that. Luckily my area is in the city so everything is relatively close. Oh and when we came back we walked down the road of the beach and took some pictures. 'Ill try and send them to you. I was wearing normal clothes because its kinda hard to do a knee exam in church clothes. Needless to say I got sunburned. I didn't even realize I would because I'm so used to the heat and the sun in my church clothes. I had just bought some new flip flops the day before and I already have them tan lined into my feet. sweet huh? The next day elder Wilkins got sick, I think part of it was because he got super sunburned. He had a pretty bad fever and stuff. And now lets skip to Saturday! The day of the wedding. So the wedding was planed for 9am and we got there at 8:30 and nobody was there. UHHH so we waited and waited and finally people started showing up. Mormon standard time I guess. So then the wedding started at like 10 or 10:30. After the wedding we had the baptism of the groom Ricardo. It was super cool. Hopefully he will go to church so that in a year on their wedding anniversary they can get sealed as a family in the temple. So the morning went well. So like I said earlier we have been teaching Izabela she is 14 and we are teaching the rest of her family too. But she loved church the last times she has been and the other youth here really like her so she went to an activity that was in the afternoon and after it we got to baptize her too. It was a super good day! That's really all that has happened here this last week. I don't really know what more to tell you about my knee. It hurts when I wake up in the morning, so I think that's the arthritis, and it hurts when we are walking and when I stop for a while it will start to hurt. Its kinda stupid. I'm pretty sure whatever time is good for y'all is good for me to call on mothers day. I have church in the morning here so its before you all wake up I think haha, but if I get transferred in may it might change. Do you think you could ask Brother Higgs about the lubricating shot he put in my knee and then tell me what is was? Oh and one more thing. If it's possible could you look and the Nike website and find a cheap soccer ball and maybe a few shirts that are cheap for some of the Brazilian guys here? Anything that is Nike here is super expensive. Like 250 reals for a normal pair of shoes and stuff ridiculous like that. and I think the website has soccer balls for like 10 bucks or something. If you could that would be awesome. Other than that I'm doing super good down here!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/15/13

AHHHHHHHH hes coming down here to Brazil! I called it! So I don't know too much about Belem, but I live with a guy from there. It does rain a lot. But its super hot too! And its gonna be super sweet, I'm super excited for Cams! Parabéns buddy!  I got the Easter package this week! Thank you so much mom! The only other thing I could think of for a birthday package is maybe a Seattle sounders jersey. I can buy towels here so I think it would just be better to do that. I'm super glad to hear that everyone is doing well though! The shoes I have a still good, I'm still using my first pair so that's good! So this week was pretty good! We started off the week well. Then Tuesday we taught a lesson with Sister Hall in the chapel with a lady that does all the printing for the mission. She was really receptive and the spirit was super strong. It was kinda a weird lesson though. We showed here the whole church, then we gave her a blessing because she has problems with kidney stones. Then we watched the prophets talk from conference Sunday morning. We have another lesson with her this Thursday. The craziest part of the whole lesson was that at the end Sister Hall surprised everyone even herself I think and challenged her to be baptized, and she accepted. So this week we have to get everything all figured out for her. Then Wednesday we had interviews with President Hall and training from Sister Hall. She was still talking about the lesson and telling everyone about it haha. Even President Hall mentioned it to us. Then President told me I'm helping another elder that I live with because I'm running with him in the mornings and work out with him. It was kind of funny. Friday morning kinda sucked though. Elder Felix and I, the other Elder we live with left the house super early to find a doctor so that I can do physical therapy down here. We walked like all the way to the beach looking for the place and then found out that it was on the other side of the city. So we walked there. When we finally found the place they told us that the doctor we need to see only works on Monday at noon. So then we had to walk all the way back to our house. Like 3 and a half hours of solid walking haha. That's really all that happens this week with me. Love you all and I hope y'all have a good week!

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/08/13

Hey Fam!

Cams call is already coming?! That's insane! I waited a month or more to get mine. I actually got mine a year ago this week! Crazy huh? Did you all watch conference? It was pretty amazing huh? Conference here starts at one in the after noon, then the afternoon session starts at 5. We got to watch it in English too so that was nice. It so much better when you get to here the different ways that the apostles talk. We got to watch with president and sister hall too. One thing I noticed is that almost everyone talked about the importance of the family. This is one thing that I see every day down here in Brazil. Most families here are not really families or people don't really have a family. I'm so grateful for my amazing family and the things you all taught me. I'm grateful for the opportunity i have to help other people have amazing families too. I saw the trailer for the movie you all went to in a members house and it looks super good! Funny that dad fell asleep ha ha? How's everyone been doing lately? The towel I have is great! it dries super fast which is nice. The only thing that sucks is when I wash it and then take a shower forgetting that it is in the wash. Then I don't have a towel to use ha ha ha. My companion is pretty cool, he is from Sacramento California. I thought about some things I would like you to send me, and I came up with Those rubber CTR rings, to give to the kids we baptize, some livestrong bands, cuz everyone wants mine ha ha deodorant too ha ha. Toothpaste, the good American kind because here it sucks and is expensive, peanut butter and oreos ha ha  I got letters from cam and Kelley this week so it looks like I'll need to write y'all some letters. Also we have a super cool new family we are teaching now. They are super receptive and like the doctrine. They went to a session of general conference too. The only problem is that we will have to get them married first. Oh and we have a wedding on the 20th of this month so it looks like I've got some wedding planning to do ha ha. I hope y'all have a good week, I love you all.

I think Cams will go somewhere legit, it would be cool if he came down here to Brazil, so that's my first guess. Second I think like Samoa or Hawaii or somewhere like that. Where ever he goes its where the Lord needs him, and there will be a specific reason for him to be there and people that are waiting for him to help them. And things to learn there. 

Abraço,

Elder Brady Simpson

04/03/13

Hey Fam!

I'm doing super good! This week was transfers again! I got a new comp again. His name is Elder Wilkins another American ha ha, I was sad to see Elder Jensen go, he was great but Elder Wilkins will be cool too! That's crazy about Cam and the mission papers, his call should come soon! It sounds like everyone is doing super good at home! So not a lot happened this last week with me. Elder Jensen got sick like all week so the first part we didn't really work much. IT was a lot of down time. That's super annoying because we have nothing to do in our house. We did have a dinner appointment with the family of the kid we baptized on Friday and its tradition here that the Friday before Easter everyone eats fish. Not meat. I don't like fish ha ha. The work has kind of gotten hard too. We want to help so many people, but its hard when they don't want to help themselves. Lots of times the poor people use the excuse of being poor to not doing something and it super annoying. I did get the letter from Kelley, but not the package yet. That's really all I have this week. It was kinda funny this week that for holidays everyone just goes out drinking here. So it was like lets celebrate the Resurrection and Christ's death by getting super drunk. Needless to say we saw a lot of drunk people. The letters are getting to me just fine, but we only get mail like once a month which kind of sucks! But i Love you all and hope y'all have a good week!

Ate mais,

Elder Brady Simpson